The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Volume 4 eBook

Ought I not to be provident for the welfare of my fellow-citizens?
Ought I not day and night to think of your freedom
and of the safety of the republic? For what do
I not owe to you, O Romans, since you have preferred
for all the honours of the state a man who is his own
father to the most nobly born men in the republic?
Am I ungrateful? Who is less so? I, who,
after I had obtained those honours, have constantly
laboured in the forum with the same exertions as I
used while striving for them. Am I inexperienced
in state affairs? Who has had more practice than
I, who have now for twenty years been waging war against
impious citizens?

VII Wherefore, O Romans, with all the prudence of
which I am master, and with almost more exertion than
I am capable of, will I put forth my vigilance and
watchfulness in your behalf In truth, what citizen
is there, especially in this rank in which you have
placed me, so forgetful of your kindness, so unmindful
of his country, so hostile to his own dignity, as
not to be roused and stimulated by your wonderful
unanimity? I, as consul, have held many assemblies
of the people, I have been present at many others,
I have never once seen one so numerous as this one
of yours now is. You have all one feeling, you
have all one desire, that of averting the attempts
of Marcus Antonius from the republic, of extinguishing
his frenzy and crushing his audacity. All orders
have the same wish. The municipal towns, the
colonies, and all Italy are labouring for the same
end. Therefore you have made the senate, which
was already pretty firm of its own accord, firmer
still by your authority. The time has come, O
Romans, later altogether than for the honour of the
Roman people it should have been, but still so that
the things are now so ripe that they do not admit
of a moment’s delay. There has been a sort
of fatality, if I may say so, which we have borne
as it was necessary to bear it. But hereafter
if any disaster happens to us it will be of our own
seeking. It is impossible for the Roman people
to be slaves, that people whom the immortal gods have
ordained should rule over all nations. Matters
are now come to a crisis. We are fighting for
our freedom. Either you must conquer, O Romans,
which indeed you will do if you continue to act with
such piety and such unanimity, or you must do anything
rather than become slaves. Other nations can
endure slavery. Liberty is the inalienable possession
of the Roman people.

THE SEVENTH ORATION OF M. T. CICERO AGAINST MARCUS ANTONIUS CALLED
ALSO THE SEVENTH PHILIPPIC.

THE ARGUMENT

After the senate had decided on sending them, the
ambassadors immediately set out, though Servius Sulpicius
was in a very bad state of health. In the meantime
the partisans of Antonius in the city, with Calenus
at their head were endeavouring to gain over the rest
of the citizens, by representing him as eager for
an accommodation and they kept up a correspondence
with him, and published such of his letters as they
thought favourable for their views. Matters being
in this state, Cicero, at an ordinary meeting of the
senate, made the following speech to counteract the
machinations of this party, and to warn the citizens
generally of the danger of being deluded by them.